Innocent Belief Famously known for his novel, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair changed American life in the early 1900s without a doubt through his literature. However, many don’t realize that Sinclair reformed American life in more than one instance, through more than one book. At times, he even reached beyond his realm of literature to discuss other needed adjustments. Besides the serendipitous changes he created for the meat packaging industry, Sinclair’s other actions throughout his life are, subjectively, important to American history, according to Anthony Arthur. In his biography, Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Arthur reveals his bias towards Sinclair, while supplying a relevant nature to his writing across an in-depth review of Sinclair’s
The author of The Jungle, Upton Sinclair, was a bright student and a skilled writer from a young age. At the age of fourteen he entered the College of the City of New York. He earned his B.A. from City College of New York in 1897 and later entered a graduate program at Columbia University. He was a socialist and wrote many muckraking articles which expose social and political corruption.
Socially, “The Jungle” was created to explore “unhealthy conditions, and general absence of meaningful safety standards in the workplace”. This book caused society to “think about the nature of the system that was making such conditions necessary”. Conditions such as the ones presented in Sinclair’s book appalled the readers. Economically, Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” after she decided to investigate immigrant workers in the workplace. The book led to the “loss of the European market caused by their smaller competitors”.
Upton Sinclair is the author of the book The Jungle. The Jungle was written to tell the public about the conditions of workplaces, particularly in the meat packing industries. Sinclair used graphic words to describe the rotten, nasty, and contaminated meat. As History.com (2016) states, the thought of what their food was going through hit the public hard in the stomach, but that was not the impact that Sinclair had in mind. History.com (2016) came to this conclusion becasue the information recieved from the book.
Upton Sinclair wrote a book from the early 1900’s called The Jungle. The book is centered around a family who immigrated to America. The family goes through a lot of hardships and troubles during the industrialization era. Life back then was hard for the average person. Most people did not have much money to buy food and necessities, and many lived in rural areas, mostly immigrants.
Though both authors wrote based on their own personal experiences. Upton Sinclair went undercover as a worker in these factories and wrote of what he saw, while Jacob Riis went to tenements, wrote or took pictures of what he saw. These two authors were trying to create change. They knew that the workers and the poor living in these tenements couldn’t go anything. So who else to help besides the public?
Upton Sinclair reflects the reality of the people during the late 1800’s in his novel The Jungle. In his novel, Sinclair wants to promote Socialism by showing how people lived in the meatpacking plant and under a corrupt government. The inhuman working conditions, combined with the lack of hygiene and a corrupt government, made trying to make a living a total hardships for the low class and the immigrants. The Jungle takes place in Packingtown, Chicago, where the employees work under horrible conditions. In the meatpacking plants workers have to perform dangerous tasks and problems as the absence of heat in the winter or conditioning air in summer, make the situation worst.
In early 1900, specifically, 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written. This novel told the story of a Lithuanian immigrant who worked in a filthy Chicago meatpacking plant. It exposed the meatpacking industry by stating their vile practices not only towards their meat but their workers as well. This was a result of the combination of many immigrants in the United States to pursue a better life, and the fact that many big industries were looking for ways to maximize their profit. The Jungle exposed the way workers were treated in the meatpacking industry.
Title and Author: The Jungle , Upton Sinclair Genre: Historical Novel Date Published: February 26 , 1906 , Historical Connections: The Jungle is connected to a group of journalist who were active in The Progressive Era which took place from the 1890s to the 1920s. Upton Sinclair was a muckraker which was a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt this term is used to describe an investigative journalist. These journalist exposed problems in factories and businesses. Protagonist Jurgis Rudkus is an immigrant from Lithuania. Jurgis has jet black hair and is the husband of Ona.
Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle is a novel, which affected the food industry in 1900’s but also in America today. People have learned over the years the truths about the food industry, revealed through Sinclair’s detailed evidence. Sinclair meant to aim at the public’s heart but instead he shot straight at their stomachs. One would easily be convinced to never again buy or eat meat again. Fortunately, people have seen changes from 1906 and have been currently trying to repair the Food Industry.